i was born in the early 80s and did most of my growing up in the 90s. i mention this b/c if i was creating a soundtrack of my life, most of my songs would come from the 90s and early 2000s. on occasion, i watch music videos of the songs i grew up with on youtube and i know i shouldn't do this, but at times, i read some of the comments that are on there. and there's usually 2 types:
1. "i miss music from this time, today's music sucks."
2. "i'm watching this video b/c of (insert whoever's name here)." most recently, i don't remember what video i was watching, but multiple commenters said they came to that video b/c of ray lewis, which was a little confusing to me. were they talking about ray lewis, the football player? or is there a singer named ray lewis? obviously, i missed something.
the 2nd type of comment is whatever. it's nothing to pay attention to. however, the first type of comment makes me think, b/c if i'm honest... i think i agree with its sentiment. but let me be clear, it's not that i think the comment is true in an objective sense. i think it's true as an opinion. and that makes all the difference.
so why do i think today's music sucks compared to the music i grew up with (one more clarification: i don't think today's music sucks, it's just i don't like a lot of it)? i think the answer is quite simple. i mentioned this in a previous entry, but a writer once said that there is something to be said for being alive during the time of the song's original popularity. i mean, i can like the beatles as much as i want, but it's gotta be a VERY different feeling from someone who was not only alive, but genuinely cared about music at the time the beatles were actually performing and releasing new music, right?
when i graduated from college, one of my friends told me about a band called bloc party. i was definitely interested b/c i liked the name of the group, but i couldn't get into them. and these days, since i don't listen to the radio (it doesn't work in my car), i have very few opportunities to listen to new music. but that's not really an explanation for anything, since i do keep up with korean music. it's just that i choose not to keep up with the majority of today's music.
so back to my question: why do i not like the majority of today's music? it's b/c music isn't as important to me anymore. when i was growing up, music played such a big role in my life. i loved it and it mattered. today, it's more of a hobby. i still love it, but b/c my life has grown more cluttered, it matters less.
i guess that's just the way life is. i'm sure when i get much older and i have less clutter in my life, music will matter more once again.
